


seawater

by jasperartemis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Witch AU, also kind of a, kind of a, mermaid au, tw body horror, tw imagery of drowning?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-10-24 17:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10746186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasperartemis/pseuds/jasperartemis
Summary: heavily inspired by neil gaiman's 'only the end of the world again.'





	1. Chapter 1

it’s dark here  
kind of boring  
a small town  
with not much in it.  
it’s nearly the new moon, which  
i was pleased about. i’ve been waiting  
and a new moon brings change.  
i’ve been here a while. i have a little apartment  
and every day i go down to the main street  
it doesn’t have a lot of shops or foot traffic  
like a proper main street  
but it’s got enough, and  
i run a little shop where i sell  
odds & ends & antiques & crystals & tarot readings  
i’m not very good at it though.  
+  
the little bell rings  
and it sounds like a frog peeping in the springtime  
he’s too tall for the short doorframe  
(he’s not that tall  
but the doorframe is very short).  
his skin looks soft like a real person's skin should be,  
everyone here is either clammy-pale or clammy-dark  
and i’ve just gotten used to the beads  
of sweat upon everyone’s unnatural faces.  
he’s looking for a reading.  
i name a price and he nods  
pulls out a few dollars and hands them over  
i shuffle my cards  
_that’s not how you do it_ he says  
_here, let me_  
i let him take my cards and  
they flash through his hands, a blur  
far too fast to be natural  
but i know that he’s 100% human  
(his eyes a clear blue  
so unlike the iris-free black holes of my neighbors’ eyes)  
(his hair soft and lightly curled  
not weighted by grease or floating around his head  
ever since i moved here my hair moves on air currents thick as water).  
he gives me back my cards  
i turn one card over.  
+  
i never learned how to read tarot  
when someone brought in this deck in the bottom of a box  
of things to donate here, i decided  
it would bring in some extra money.  
every witch should know, right? so i make it up as i go  
the card i turn over is –  
i don’t know their names  
it looks like a wheel but the most important thing  
that i notice is this: water damage  
on the edge of the card. it wasn’t there before.  
_are you new in town?_  
_yeah, i am_ he responds. _i’m lance. who are you?_  
_keith_ i say. _why are my cards wet?_  
the cards’ designs are smudged from the water  
the card in my hand bends in its dampness  
and i notice that his hair is plastered to his head  
from water. beads drip onto his shoulders  
and salt flecks the strands.  
he looks up at me with blue eyes  
and smiles, painfully slow, revealing  
sharp teeth just small enough to be human.  
_you’re not what i thought you were_ i say, my voice shaking  
_what did you think i was?_  
_human_ i manage to push out. water drips from my mouth  
and breathing is so hard.  
_what, am i not good enough?_ he says,  
his face falling comically.  
he’s so beautiful.  
_get out!_  
_get out! get out! get out!_  
he slowly, ever so slowly, stands  
and leaves my shop  
the bell sounds like a frog in the spring  
and i’m lying on the floor of my shop  
spitting out seawater.


	2. Chapter 2

HE IS HUNGRY. HE IS ALONE.  
the newspaper drops a cryptic headline  
but this is a normal headline in the newspaper  
that i get in this town.  
i eat toast at the one little table in my apartment  
and i take the last two bites and place it on my windowsill  
the window that won’t close  
the birds will eat it, they  
are strange birds around here.  
more like manta rays than birds  
with flat bodies and thick dark wings and dull beaks  
their eyes soulless and black.  
i consider opening my shop  
but instead, i walk to the shore  
the water is greasy and dark  
under an oppressive gray sky  
there’s a couple dead fish on the sand  
stinking and bony  
i pick one up (i used to shudder at the texture  
but everything feels kind of like the fish  
in this place).  
the fish catapults through the air into the water  
hits with a splash that’s loud in the quiet air  
and disappears.  
i wait.  
+  
nothing happens, even  
a full hour later. i shiver  
and i go back into town and open my shop.  
the bell sounds  
a person the color of the fish i threw this morning  
(gray and pale) walks in  
he’s looking for a net and i tell him  
we have no nets, try looking at the fishing  
shop down the street?  
he huffs and leaves but  
not before croaking out:  
HE IS HUNGRY.  
i calmly tell him that i know.  
+  
when i get home  
on the table written in streaks of water  
HE IS ALONE. i wipe it away  
with a towel and i eat dinner.  
the bread is gone from the windowsill.  
i brush my teeth, letting  
a cupful of water swim around my mouth  
tasting strangely salty (but that  
might just be the air?)  
my mind is filled with images  
of lance, and his too-sharp teeth  
i spit out the water  
thinking of yesterday, of  
lance.  
what was he?  
what is he?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> apologies for abandoning this! here is a chapter update. there should be more chapters following shortly. i am excited to see where this is heading!

the shop is silent. a sign on the door  
keep out, we’re closed i don’t want interruptions  
water-stained books surround me  
sitting cross-legged in the back of the shop  
drawing with chalk  
and salt and a bottle of seawater  
and grinding dry old fishbones  
into a black bowl.  
later i will go back to the beach.  
+  
lance swims to shore a few moments later, shiny  
with water.  
_hello love he says. knew you couldn’t stay away long._  
i say nothing.  
_i’m not a siren. not trying to kill you._  
i say nothing.  
he pulls himself onto the shore. he wears no clothes.  
i touch his shoulder. it’s warm, not cool like i expected.  
he turns and smiles with those too-sharp teeth. they’re black  
at the tips like he recently ate something with black blood.  
his tongue is red and it licks the black off his teeth.  
_what are you looking for?_  
i say nothing.  
_i can’t fix your cards_ he says _sorry about that_  
_you nearly killed me_ i say  
_no i didn’t he says. you were fine!_  
_you put water in my lungs. i couldn’t breathe._  
he stands, taller than me. his hand brushes my hair, curling  
and uncurling in the air  
as though drifting through water.  
_you’re getting used to living here._  
_is that good or bad?_ i say.  
he shrugs, fluidly. _it’s your decision._  
_how come you don’t look like the other people here?_  
he says nothing  
melts before my hands and disappears into the sea.  
+  
i dream of him again.  
under the ugly light of a streetlamp  
rivulets of water running down his cheeks  
seawater or tears, i do not know  
_you’re becoming like them_ he says  
his voice choked and his teeth gleam when he speaks –  
the dream shifts.  
its skin is gray and its eyes are black  
its hair shines like an oil slick.  
it drifts like so many tentacles, reaching for me,  
reaching out and i scream as i awake in the dark  
i only realize some time later that i saw myself.


End file.
